Older workers ‘doing significantly more unpaid overtime’

Unpaid overtime is becoming the norm in too many workplaces with the proportion of employees in their late 50s and early 60s working unpaid overtime increasing sharply in the last decade, according to a new TUC analysis.

Unpaid overtime is becoming the norm in too many workplaces with the proportion of employees in their late 50s and early 60s working unpaid overtime increasing sharply in the last decade, according to a new TUC analysis.

The TUC analysis of official government figures shows that over the last decade the number of workers doing unpaid overtime has increased by just 96,000. Given the growing size of the working population, this means that the likelihood of doing unpaid overtime has fallen by 0.2 per cent.

However, the analysis reveals sharp age disparities. The proportion of workers in their early 20s doing unpaid overtime has fallen by 36 per cent in the last decade, while the likelihood of workers in their early 60s doing unpaid overtime has increased by 45 per cent, it says.

A quarter of a million more workers in their late 50s and early 60s did unpaid overtime in 2011 than in 2001. Fears about a loss of income after retirement mean that more people are working past their traditional retirement age and this is leading more older workers to do unpaid overtime, says the TUC.

The likelihood of doing unpaid overtime increases the longer someone has been in their job. Workers who have been in the same post for at least 10 years are twice as likely to work unpaid overtime (25 per cent) as those who have been working for less than a year (12.5 per cent).

Workers in their late 30s are still the most likely to work unpaid overtime, with over one in four employees in this age bracket (26.6 per cent) regularly putting in extra hours for free, according to the analysis.

It also shows that teachers are the most likely to do unpaid overtime, with media professionals and managers in financial services, health and social services also featuring highly.

At least half of all workers in these professions regularly put in unpaid hours, showing that a long hours culture is now ‘part of the norm’, despite much of it being unpaid, bad for their health and not productive, says the TUC.

Across the UK around one in five workers (5.3 million people) put in an average of 7.2 hours of unpaid overtime per week last year, worth around £5,300 a year per person – and a record £29.2 billion to the economy.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “Over the last decade, more people are working well into their 60s – and many of them are putting in extra unpaid hours too.

“A lot of older workers are keen to reduce their hours as they approach retirement, but many of them have to top up their contracted hours with extra working time for free.

“Around one in five workers regularly do unpaid overtime but it’s becoming the norm in far too many workplaces. Whilst most people have no objection to putting in some extra hours to help their employer through a busy period, an entrenched long hours culture causes stress, health problems and lower morale.”

The research is released on the TUC’s Work Your Proper Hours Day when it is encouraging staff to take a proper lunch break and leave work on time.